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Operation Weightloss

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18:00 / 06.05.06

I guess you could do Root Beer, it's soda poppish without caffeine, or a refreshing 7-up.

19:45 / 06.05.06

But those still have massive amounts of sugar in them, the true evil of soft drinks. It would be better to switch to diet sodas than it would be to drink only non-caffeinated soda.

Whisky Priestess

21:01 / 06.05.06

Sugar-free Red Bull is a lot nicer and closer in taste to the with-pies variety than any other diet fizzy pop I've tried. Apart from Diet Lemon Tango, which is elephant-egg rare these days ...

21:03 / 06.05.06

Do they even have Tango in the States?

21:14 / 06.05.06

No Tango to my knowledge...

Any clue as when these body aches will cease?

21:20 / 06.05.06

Nope, but I think it's a fair bet that if you're hurting 'cause your body's missing something in sodapops then you should steer well clear of them in future.

23:49 / 06.05.06

Why'd you kick coffee too? That's not a fattening drink unless you add a load of cream. Take it with milk or black. If you really want to go caffeine-free, take an OTC pain reliever - caffeine constricts the blood vessels in a similar way so that you get you over the hump of withdrawal.

23:50 / 06.05.06

Err... I need maybe need another me coffee myself too.

23:57 / 06.05.06

I take my cream with a bit of coffee, to be honest, and I'm the major consumer of sugar at work. I figured cold turkey should work all the way around.

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:14 / 10.05.06

What would be the effects of a diet of yoghurt for breakfast and soup (plus bread roll) for lunch, most Mondays-Fridays?

15:32 / 10.05.06

HUNGER, possibly causing you to snack later in the afternoon, or to become irritable and ineffective. However, probably also weight loss if you keep it up over some weeks. (Not forgetting that you need to eat fibre etc. to be regular...)

I suppose it would depend how much energy you generally need to get through the day, but drastically reducing your consumption is probably not the best way of proceeding. It sounds like the kind of regime I would try to impose on myself, and fail.

If you're going to have light meals, they should really be in the evening anyway - you need less energy then. Have the soup for tea instead of lunch.

15:44 / 10.05.06

That's sound advice. I'd recommend a big breakfast - of porridge or museli - neither tastes as bad as you think and they're both quite easy to eat first thing. They give you everything you need for a slow release of energy throughout the morning.

Ex

15:47 / 10.05.06

Yes - I'd third the idea that yoghurt will only make you peckish. If you can acquire a taste for them, Bran Flakes are a splendid breakfast. They have the filling power of concrete and the calorific value of cardboard (also vitamins, grains and all that stuff).

20:13 / 10.05.06

What would be the effects of a diet of yoghurt for breakfast and soup (plus bread roll) for lunch, most Mondays-Fridays?

That doesn't sound too bad on the face of it, depending on how many calories you usually eat and how many you need, and, I guess, when you usually eat breakfast. If your breakfast and lunch aren't too far apart I'd imagine yogurt's a fine first meal. The only caveats I'd have are that the yogurt should be plain - the flavored ones usually have a ton of sugar - add real fruit instead for flavor. And stay away from soups that have a ton of sodium, as many canned soups do.

20:19 / 10.05.06

Jub: That's sound advice. I'd recommend a big breakfast - of porridge or museli - neither tastes as bad as you think and they're both quite easy to eat first thing.

Porridge is a superb breakfaststuff, although no unfried breakfast keeps me sustained to the extent that I'm not hungry by half ten. Troughing on fruit throughout the day is quite a good way to get round this, because it makes you feel incredibly full and means you don't want to snack on, for example, crisps so much.

23:38 / 10.05.06

Cut out one of your meals. It sounds like madness but you'll lose quite a bit of weight.

I'm in my 30s, skinny and I can eat what I like and never put weight on, so I'm not going to violate Xoc's 8th Commandment and offer advice, but there's a Dieting 101 question I'd like to ask (although I can handle snark if that's irresistible): What's so mad about eating less? What would happen if you cut out breakfast, or lunch, or even both? I do that pretty routinely, and I don't really suffer. And it's not as if I have any reserves to draw on. Friends talk about feeling faint by 11 o'clock if they haven't eaten anything, but I don't even think to eat before then.

Or maybe I do feel as hungry as anyone else, but I just have a different attitude to feeling hungry. I remember hearing someone blame the modern obesity epidemic on the fact that in post-scarcity cultures, we have 'forgotten' that the body is supposed to run hungry. We now view the first sign of hunger as something wrong; something that needs to be sated and 'fixed'. Is it possible to reorient your attitude to eating, as you might reorient your attitude to smoking. How does over-eating differ from addiction?

04:25 / 11.05.06

i lost three stone in about eight months eating a family block of chocolate ev'ry day. true.

[also ate only one other meal and a light healthy snack per day, was working night shift and studying and had a band going and a party-oriented group house, so that helped. i got glandular fever after a while - dunno why. isn't 3-4hrs sleep a night for two months ok??]

i'll second the porridge call though. it is remarkably good for you. and my territory's chief health officer swears by it, so who am i to argue?

really though, losing weight is simply about eating fewer calories than you burn. period.

but life isn't so easy, is it? good luck!!

04:54 / 11.05.06

If you don't like porridge, just buy a bag of oats from a health food shop. That's what I do. Add some nuts, rasins, banana, apple etc as you feel like. Loads better for you than all those high sugar cerals.

05:09 / 11.05.06

What's so mad about eating less? What would happen if you cut out breakfast, or lunch, or even both?

You can drop weight by eliminating meals. When I was in school I would routinely skip meals towards the end of the semester due to time/money constraints. Each time I would drop a considerable amount of weight. However, most of this was muscle mass and while I was getting skinnier, my health was deteriorating. Your body needs a certain level of caloric intake as well as vitamins. Skipping meals does not help you in this regard.

On a side note, skipping breakfast will in fact decrease your metabolism for the rest of the day. You'll digest food at a slower rate, hindering weight loss.

05:15 / 11.05.06

Hmmm...I should point out that everyone's body is different and people will react differently to various programs. But generally, missing meals is not the best way towards becoming healthier, even if you lose weight.

07:14 / 11.05.06

I hav afriend who swears by a combination of things: big calorie-laden breakfast then few carbs, fruit and veg for lunch and almost none in the evening (all veg and protein). Then again, she does a ridiculous amount of exercise, so...

Gendudehashadenough

07:22 / 11.05.06

I tend to skip some meals here and there and when I do I remember hearing something about either eating three meals a day w/ various nutritional content or simply snacking all day making sure that those snacks are as healthly as possilbe (i.e. f. fruit, vegies, nuts, carbs for energy, etc.) The later though, I think, depends on the variety and ofteness of the exercise.

threadrotty..if you want to gain good weight via protein, aenerobic exercise will help a lot. get those fasttwitch fibers some umph.

Disco is My Class War

16:22 / 11.05.06

I always thought it was bad to skip meals because getting hungry -- really hungry -- actually makes the body conserve more fat, because it thinks, "Here comes a famine, better keep that extra fat around". Plus, by going hungry you stress your body out, and if you have to concentrate or do strenuous tasks, like retain a job, you're more likely to run on adrenalin than normal energy, thus stressing yourself out even more. Going hungry will make you cranky. Why get cranky? Also, missing meals just invites fat and sugar snacking. You miss lunch, then you're waiting for a train at 5.12pm and you eye off the vending machine. If you're starving, aren't you more likely to say, Fuck it, and eat chocolate/chips/takeaway with less nutrition than food you could make at home?

(I have an insanely low blood sugar level, though, so have always been more susceptible to hunger and after work vending machine pigging out. If it's a choice between chocolate and passing out, chocolate wins.)

The bread thing is different depending on what kind of bread you eat. Rye/wholemeal/wholegrain with lots of seeds and bran and grains is quite good for you. White bread, on the other hand, has a gigantic sugar content, and white flour really doesn't do anything nutritious at all.

For breakfast, I do the following:
some muesli (preferably toasted, preferably home-made, preferably with some nuts and seeds, linseed is good, makes you less depressed cuz of the omga-3 fatty acids)
a small apple, grated
some plain yoghurt
Mix and eat. Yoghurt is better for you than milk; you get lots of fruit this way; plus it's delicious (okay, I think it's delicious) and you get some protein and good carbs, which keeps up your energy until lunchtime or whenever you get to eat next.

I've also been told that walking in the morning is good, since the longer you don't eat before exercising, the more fat you burn off.

Tryphena Absent

16:29 / 11.05.06

I find skipping meals regularly- not eating lunch- is far more likely to help me lose weight but I only hold weight on my stomach and it's not food that I need to eat if I have breakfast and dinner. Everyone's metabolism is different though.

18:34 / 11.05.06

Let me prove I can make you a new man!

07:52 / 15.09.06

I've also been told that walking in the morning is good, since the longer you don't eat before exercising, the more fat you burn off.

Dudes, I am confused. So much conflicting advice in the world...

I've already asked here to no avail in my impatient universe, but apologies for the repetition. If I am engaging in ridiculous exercise before work in the morning, then when's the best time to breakfast and what should I be having? (And please don't say anything about muesli or yoghurt, which I see a lot of above, as both are vile foodstuffs of the devil. Fact.)

pointless & uncalled for

08:07 / 15.09.06

The key to diet is sustainability, therefore foodstuffs that you consider vile are right out.
The key to weightloss is comfort. Making yourself uncomfortable means that goal acheivement is very often the moment of recidivism.

For breakfast I would advise taking what you typically eat and and making it healthier.

I eat toast and jam and some fruit. That is then wholemeal bread, lightly toasted with low-fat margerine and low-sugar preserve. Fruit is pretty much as good as it will ever get but don't fall for the grapefruit with half and inch of sugar on top routine.

As for timing, go back to comfort. If you don't feel comfortable exercising before breakfast then don't unless you're determined to sustain it in the long-term. Have breakfast, let it settle and then exercise. I do this by chilling out with my coffee before cycling twelve miles to work.

Not in the Face

08:24 / 15.09.06

How much weight are you trying to lose? Personally I think trying to get the balance just right is a only problem if you are trying to lose the last few pounds or are in training for some major athletic event. Otherwise its more about being sensible, not starving yourself and being in a routine you can stick to.

If you are doing lots of exercise (and first thing in the morning is supposed to be the time to do it) then as long as you are eating a sensible amount you should be ok. Remember that your body is going to need food after vigorous exercise because although its burning off calories its also likely to be putting on muscle in the hours following the exercise for which it needs sustenance, so skimping on breakfast or delaying it is going to leave you hungrier and more in need of a quick, and most probably unhealthy, fix.

I've lost about 5kg over the past 6 weeks doing 1hours exercise 2-3 times a week and using the GI diet. For breakfasts it recommends one of the following - 30-50g of a bran based cereal with skimmed milk and fruit, an omelette as well as the muesli and yoghurt that you have such strong feelings about.

One option could be to make a smoothie - just add milk, plain yoghurt and fruit. You'll need a blender to mix it all up but you can get a hand blender from Argos for a fiver if in UK. That should give you plenty of energy type food stuff without it having the consistency or look of yoghurt and you only use a little yoghurt so the taste isn't there. Have that with some toast and low sugar jam (or try and get jam that uses fruit juice as a sweetner rather than sugar) or peanut butter. if you don't want to eat too soon after exercise then get a plastic clip container and take it with you in the morning and have it when you feel more settled.

Also some sort of mid morning snack (humous and ryvita, fruit, nuts) to keep your energy levels up

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

08:37 / 15.09.06

I fell in love with this guy and lost 33 pounds in three months after reading the page carefully. I didn't stick to his plan MANIACALLY, but followed a few basic tenets:

1. 4-5 small meals a day instead of three large ones;
1a. Make sure every "mini-meal" includes protein;
2. Write down EVERYTHING you eat and count calories;
3. Exercise, even a little, every day.

Even if you decide that it's not for you, reading that Web site is still of immense benefit because it's the most lucid explanation of weight loss science that I've ever run across.

Plus he doesn't sell anything and doesn't want anything except for you to sign your organ donor card.

08:39 / 15.09.06

some muesli (preferably toasted)
The whole thing? Toasted muesli? That sounds lovely. How long should one toast muesli for then?

Yoghurt is better for you than milk
Why?

Doozy, what about granary toast, low fat spread, a bit of honey and a mashed banana? That's nice and good for you.

Ignominious, how far in advance do you eat your breakfast before you cycle?

pointless & uncalled for

08:51 / 15.09.06

About thirty minutes.

Now bear in mind that my situation is not going to be everyone elses. I ride at high speed/high cadence over a long distance and involves a fair amount of adrenaline. If I don't let the food settle then I end up feeling quite ill. If your pace is more gentle than mine then fifteen to twenty will probably be fine.

Another tip on the exercise side is to adopt a more active lifestyle instead of an exercise regime. If the exercise you do is part of achieving something that you enjoy doing then it's better than the self-punishment routine.

08:59 / 15.09.06

Cor, speedy service! Thanks all.

I'm not really trying to lose weight at all: I don't have much going spare. From all you say, I think I should have more or less my usual brekkie *after* the exercising, when I get to work. Lula, that's pretty much what I have already, if you replace the honey with lovely magical Marmite...!

What is the great thing about yoghurt, anyway? I really can't stand it, but why is it so wonderfully brilliantly magical? It's just, y'know, gone off milk...

09:58 / 15.09.06

Am I correct in my understanding that you have Mashed banana and Marmite on your toast?

If I am then, well, that's just seven shades of wrong.

pointless & uncalled for

10:00 / 15.09.06

How do you know this, have you tried it yourself?

Have you?

10:02 / 15.09.06

That's nothing. The best EVAH is bread + marmite + cold meat + stuffing.

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